Ghosts in the Night
by Spoiler1001
Summary: Zero and girlfriend are infected by a virus that makes them relive their deepest guilt.
1. Chapter 1

Zero's was walking through the halls to his apartment. His hair was tangled, but not with the usual blood and robotic gore. It was tangled from just running his hand through it. With mavericks appearing every two days, with the intention of killing X or Zero or whoever, Zero needed sleep. Desperately.

He walked into the apartment. It was empty. He wasn't surprised about that. Reaper would often leave to do whatever she needed to do. He didn't care what she did when she vanished. It was none of his business.

This time he hadn't needed to guess what she was doing. He could smell it through the air vents. Zero sighed and went to meet her on the roof.

She was smoking a pack of cigarettes in complete silence and waited for him to scold her or the it away from her. Instead he sat down next to her.

"Save one me?" Zero asked quietly. Reaper laughed quietly and handed him a box that hadn't even been opened yet.

"I still can't believe they make these for reploids" Zero smiled.

"Reploids get stressed like humans do they figured that it would only be fair if they had access to all the stress release options." She replied, looking at him.

Zero lit up his cigarette and took a drag the of it. Then he looked up at Reaper. B

She had a dull gray coat and a black tank top on underneath. Her sweatpants were a faded green. Her green eyes shined in the night. He did a quick scan to see if she was injured, and while she was unhurt, she was barefoot.

"What's got you up." Zero asked, concerned considering it was three in the morning.

After a long drag of a cigarette, she sighed. "Just thoughts."

Zero nodded he's been there, X has been there. Everyone he knew has been there. Zero opened his mouth to ask if she wanted to talk about it but shut his mouth because it would be incredibly hypocritical of him, since he usually suffers in silence as well. Instead he nodded.

They stayed for another hour, just looking up at the sky, stars twinkling dimly. Soon they were walking towards the apartment, in silence. Zero stripped off his armor and pulled down the bed. Reaper went to the shower and washed the smell off and get some heat back into her body. She dried off and plopped into the bed, right next to Zero. He smiled, content and played with her hair.

The next morning Zero woke up to Reaper sleeping soundly. Her mouth open slightly and she was nuzzling his neck. Zero smiled and pulled away and went to get his armor on.

At the HQ, Zero and X walked towards the Meeting room with Zero right next to him. Their footsteps synced and they had a small conversation as they went, started by X.

"Zero, I know we don't talk often, so how are you?" X asked, smiling. Zero smiled a little bit.

"I'm good but Reaper's been going through some hard times." Zero sighed. "After Isoc's attack, she's been… a bit more reserved."

"But how is she physically?" X asked as they made it to the door to the meeting room.

"Physically, she recovered from whatever Isoc did to her, but she thinks that I think less of her now." Zero frowned.

"That sounds terrible." X frowned as well.

The meeting dragged on for hours. Signas went over a new virus that was unique in the fact that it did not permanent physical damage.

"The majority of the damage comes from the self mutilation. The reploids infected claw at their bodies to stop the hallucinations. The worst of which was a rookie hunter named Atlas." Signas explained as he sighed and rubbed a temple with his hands. "You would think that the after Sigma, this kind of shit would stop." He laughed bitterly.

"...Sir, are you alright?" X asked rising to walk towards his commander. Signas sighed and nodded, his hand dropping.

"As I was saying, several maverick hunters arrived at med bay with the, injuries. Many were screaming about how they could have saved someone or sobbing about a brother in arms that was killed in battle, at least the ones still conscious." Signas said, passing around some pictures of the damage. They showed hunters bound to tables to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. Other pictures showed hunters curled into a ball, shaking.

"The oddest thing here is the fact that this isn't permanent. Three days later, these hunters were completely calm like nothing ever happened." Signas finished. Zero looked back down at the photos and sighed. How could it get this bad, people were literally ripping themselves apart. Dark red oil covered the reploids in the photo.

"What do you want us to do?" X asked, curiosity blending into his tone.

"A Reploid is using it as a weapon. Bombing places with it. These hunters were caught in the aftershocks. Find him and stop him." Signas sighed and walked out.

Zero was walking towards the epicenter of the latest attack. He was in full armor, it glistening in the sunlight.

"Zero." A feminine voice echoed through his earpiece.

"Reaper. The hell are you doing being a navigator, Re?" Zero asked faltering in his step a tiny bit in shock.

"Helping you." Was the flat reply in return. Zero shrugged and kept on going.

They continue to make small awkward talk as Zero looked around the sight of the first incident of the virus. Everything was dead, there was no people no sounds just dead silence, leaving Zero alone with his thoughts.

Shaking his head Zero stopped that train of thought in a second. Some kind of remains traces of it must be messing with him, but given his that would be physically impossible, it was just the paranoia setting in.

Reaper was avoiding X's worried glance, which would be much easier to do if he wasn't watching her like a hawk.

"Is something wrong?" Reaper asked, her patience running thin.

"You didn't have to do this." X muttered.

"What do you mean." She was denying. Of course she would.

"You didn't have to sign up for navigator duty to try to make up for whatever you did when you worked under Isoc." X tried.

"I'm not." now she was lying to him. X sighed and walked away knowing exactly how stubborn she was.

Zero returned with nothing, which he kind of expected. The hunter's HQ had a different atmosphere than when he left. Since he had left early, everything was calm, a relaxed quiet.

Now things were tense, Zero could taste the unease. Word must have gotten out about the virus.

Zero sighed and took off his helmet. Blond hair cascaded into his face. He carried his helmet to the room where all the navigators were and placed his helmet right next to Reaper.

"This is unnecessary." Zero said.

"It's fine. I need to do something." Reaper replied, not looking at him but looking at the screen. It illuminated her face, but dulled the green of her eyes. Her entire posture was intense as she looked at the monitor, something catching her eye.

"Wait. Wasn't this hunter one of the ones who were infected the worst?" She asked, shooting up in her seat and rushing towards where the hunter was walking.

"'scuse me, but aren't you Atlas?" Reaper asked running to catch up up. The hunter in question turned to face her.

He gave her a pleasant smile, which made her uneasy.

"Yeah. And yeah I know I was supposed to be on bed rest but there was something I had to do first." Atlas smiled and walked towards a door.

"I'm sure we can do it for you." Zero picked up on her uneasiness and faked being polite because something seemed wrong with this whole thing.

"It nothing. I just need to grab a few things" Atlas made his way to the door, but hesitated. "Actually could you get me book from the library please, I don't care which one."

"Oh sure." Reaper blinked and walked towards the library. After she left Zero and Atlas walked into the room together.

"could you please hand me that thing over there?" Atlas asked and smiled. Zero nodded and handed over a small trinket. Atlas nodded and thanked him.

Without warning Atlas grabbed onto Zero's wrist and gripped it tight. Zero gasped and flinched as something shocked him and he felt something dig into his skin. Finally he cried out and collapsed as something dug deep into Atlas's. As Atlas collapsed, dead upon impact, Zero saw reaper with anger in her eyes. Those harsh eyes softened as she looked at Zero's convulsing form. She looked around for something to help and found nothing, so she picked him up and carried him over to a small containment area meant to hold people and carried him inside, where he laid limp.

Pulling away she grabbed a radio that was nearby in case a emergency broke out and called for Signas and X.

She laid down next to Zero and waited for them to arrive.

When they did she only spoke quietly.

"Me 'n Zero got it bad and we're waiting it out in here." She whispered as the door shut behind her. She closed her eyes and sighed to herself and opened her eyes.

"This is gonna suck." She laughed bitterly as a figure stood before her. His hair was a light blond with black tips his eyes were red and he had violet markings down his cheeks. At least he would, if half his face wasn't missing, exposing the metal components underneath.


	2. Chapter 2

Reaper laid down with her back to the back wall on the back of the room. Her hair was tangled and sticking to her with sweat.

"You had no problem running to me when you needed help. At least look at me!" The man with half a face yelled at her. Reaper's eyes snapped up to him.

"I'm looking looking at you now!" She snapped at him. "You cannot blame me for what happened more than I blame myself. I'm sorry Bass." Her voice cracked as tears flowed down her face. The ghost was stunned into silence.

Zero could hear a girl's voice screaming in the distance, but he was more focused on the female leaning over him.

"You let this happen. You killed me and my brother when you knew we weren't mavericks. You could have spoken up for repliforce! I could be here with you and you won't even have to replace me with someone who could kill you and not even bat an eye." Iris shouted, her cockney accent bleeding into her anger as soot covered her face and her dress was damaged to the point of falling off.

Zero let out a cry. It sounded like a wounded animal. His breath came out in soft growls and he shook. Reaper saw this and tried to walk to him, failing to do so and collapsing.

"oh, you'll try to help him, but the one who helped you with the scars on your back, me, you leave to bleed out." Bass kneeled down and whispered to her. Cocking his head to the side, his hair fell into his face, making him almost attractive. That made her question herself, just a tiny bit.

"Bass, I'm sorry." She whimpered. Bass just smirked and shook his head.

X and Signas were standing outside the panic room that Zero and Reaper hid themselves. X sighed as he heard both of them going through hell. Reaper was apologizing to someone and Zero was a sobbing mess.

"How long has it been, now." X asked Signas, his voice soft.

"It's been three hours…" Signas whispered.

"oh…." X curled up around himself and choked a little on the force of his tears.

Zero took a deep breath and gained enough speech and bearings to roll over and look up. "Re?" Zero asked, voice soft and cracking.

"I'm. .. sorry…" Was the reply. Zero stood up and pulled off his armor, making him lighter and limped over to her, grimacing at her condition.

"You can't even protect her." Iris sneered.

Zero ignored Iris and kneeled next to Reaper.

"Re...Reaper… Veronica!" Zero asked quietly while gently shaking her. Reaper blinked and slowly turned to face him. Her eyes error neon green, like her skin was turning it's stainless steel, but it was still her pale flesh, the virus making her skin even paler than it should be. Zero cupped her face and wiped the tears off her face.

"Why?" She asked. Zero's eyes snapped down.

"Why what?" Zero asked, quietly.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Zero froze and sighed.

"Because I didn't want to." He decided to lay down next to her and grabbed her hand, which had been balled into a fist. "let's think about it." He uncurled her hand gently. Blood seeped down her wrist. "When we first met, you were a child and I was a mindless beast." Zero wiped the blood off her hand to show the wounds closing. "I thought you were dead… that's why I didn't kill you then, when we first met, officially years later, I wanted to, you got under my skin, but…" Zero looked up. "You fascinated me, I had to know about you." He looks back at her and the scar on her cheek. "Then Sigma attacked and I just couldn't… you were fighting it and I just couldn't." Zero finished.

Reaper sighed and looked at her bloodied hand.

"Do you think that we'll be ok?" She finally asked.

"I don't think we were ever ok, but WE will be." Zero kissed the top of her head.

"Well isn't this cute." Bass sneered. "He won't kill you, but you'll get him killed."

"Zero, Who do you have screaming in your ear?" Reaper asked.

"Iris. You?" Zero nuzzled her.

"Bass." She replied. Zero burrowed his eyebrows and looked at her in silence.

"It's getting quiet in there." X whispered. He walked towards the door, before the screaming started. X flinched backwards and sighed.

The screaming came from Reaper and soon devolved into pained whimpering and moans. Zero pulled her close and closed his eyes.

"It's cute how he still cares about you when you are a cold hearted killer." Bass sneered and touched her scar gently, but she writhed in pain. "What will he do when all of your secrets come out."

Zero wasn't fairing much better. Iris mocked and teased him.

"She's just a rebound girl and you'll probably get did of her as soon as you feel better." Iris laughed from somewhere off. "But you'll never feel better." Iris whispered. "So you'll just keep using her."

"No! I-I…" Zero shouted. His voice died, leaving only his mouth open and gaping like a fish, when he couldn't disprove her statement.

"I know. I know 'that's not what it is', but look at that, you're gripping onto her like she's a damn teddy bear." Iris said walking towards him and running a hand through his hair, the burning sensation causing him to cry out in pain.

Zero tried to ignore the pain by closing his eyes and trying to sleep. It took a few minutes to fall asleep, and he had nightmares. Very vivid nightmares.

 _He was smelling smoke, tasting the oil of enemies that dripped on his face running into his mouth. He felt the burn of his buster firing off at enemies, and felt the terrifying joy of killing. He wanted to stop. These weren't mavericks, they were people who ran away from him in fear, regular reploids who followed the laws, and he was mowing them down._

" _Zero!" Reaper's voice rang out and Zero turned to face her._

 _Her clothes were in tatters as she stood up to him._

" _This needs to stop." She continued her walk towards him, limping all the way to him, and, to Zero's horror, the first thing that came to mind was a lamb going up against the wolf._ _ **Go**_ _Zero tried to urge her._ _ **Please. I don't want to hurt you.**_ _She couldn't hear him, and pulled a small blaster, he saw the modifications made to the blaster. It was made to pierce armor. She was ready to kill. Zero was thankful, but terrified if she failed._

" _You have to stop this." Her voice was even and her aim didn't shake, she was calm, and that calm scared him more than anything else. She shot him, knocking him down before he even registered the pain. Zero screamed, enraged and In pain and happy and hurt. Zero looked up at her as his eyes failed. His last sensations was her placing a small kiss on her forehead._

Zero's eyes snapped open and he gasped, trying to bring himself back into reality. He would have been successful but-

"Sleep well" Iris asked, the question being perfectly normal, if she wasn't a metaphorical ghost.

Zero tried to ignore her, instead he was trying to fix his internal clock, to see how long he's been in there, no such luck.

Reaper was rubbing the bridge of her nose and sighed out a laugh.

"Nightmare?" She asked, Rubbing her scalp. "I've been having 'em too." She answered his unanswered question.

"I told Iris about me first being a maverick." Zero said after a long silence.

"oh, what did she say?" Reaper was generally curious.

"That it was who I was now, but…" Zero Zero drawed.

"I know what you mean. You can talk about it all you want, but even the most vivid description pales in comparison to seeing you like that." Reaper smiled a little bit. Her green eyes dulled and she looked him.

"How long did Sigma say this would last." She whispered.

"Three days." Zero answered.

"Well fuck." She sighed.


	3. Chapter 3

Zero sighed. He could feel himself on the edge of something, but he didn't think that it will be over for him in a while. Iris was screaming in his head, giving him a dull headache. His eyes were closed, completely failing to block out Reaper become a whimpering mess across the room.

Reaper herself was mumbling words Zero couldn't decipher. He tried using a translator, but he couldn't access it or any of his other non essential functions. He was stuck in the madness of his own mind. Zero sighed and sat up opening his eyes. Iris was right in front of him, her garden green eyes staring back at him, staring through him. Her voice droned out and left a high pulsing note ringing along his head as he felt himself teetering.

"Monster…" Iris whispered in his ear as he fell into the pit of insanity.

X stood asleep against the wall, waiting. He jumped when he heard the banging and animalistic sobbing. The voice was masculine and within a second he heard the sound of someone being dragged kicking and screaming away from the door.

Reaper limped away from where she had dragged Zero and sat down next to Zero. Her hair and his was sticking to her.

"X, Wann wird drei Tage vorbei sein?" She asked in a small voice.

"...What?" X asked, energy reserves way too low to translate.

"When will the three days be over?" She translated. Zero groaned and curled into himself.

"a few more hours. You're almost there." He whispered loudly. She grunted in response and decided to try to sleep the rest of the way, but that wasn't going to be fun.

 _She was running, barefoot and scarred. Her clothes were in tatters and her scar going down her face had freshly reopened. It was snowing, icy and cold. Her lips were blue, but there was no other sign of frostbite. Clouds of air were puffing out of her lungs as she struggled to keep going. Her fear of Isoc was keeping her going. She was suddenly stopped. A hand grabbed her wrist and she spun around and looked at the opposing figure._

 _He had purple markings going down his face, his blond hair falling into his face and his dull red eyes gleamed darkly at her._

" _Hey! Hold up." He sailed out, causing her to flinch. She pulled away from him and he released her wrist, just so she wouldn't hurt herself._

" _Hey. Stop. How can you utterly betray me if I don't help you." He said in a sweet gentle voice._

Zero looked over at her, her breath erratic. Her Silver hair losing its shine and she was making her hands bleed from digging her hands into her palm. Zero blinked, not quite recognising her for a moment. Iris laughed in his ear.

"Is this how you treat your loved ones?" Iris asked, calm. "They stand with you, keep you from doing something stupid, then you leave them, forgotten, and in need of you."

Zero growled and army crawled towards Reaper. Her brows were furrowed and she was crying softly in her sleep. Zero watched her, his eyes glued to a scar on her neck. Zero looked at her hands and saw blood pooling around her palm and wrists. Zero opened her hand and wiped away the blood crusting over her hands.

 _Reaper was chained to the ceiling, pain was completely rushing throughout her body. A small knife was buried into her back._

 _Bass was still taunting her across the room._

" _You deserved this."_

" _traitor"_

" _When will you betray Zero?"_

She began shaking on the cement floor Zero's eyes snapped up to look at her face. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she was just sobbing, broken.

 _Blood flowed from her palms down her arms. She let out a pitiful whimper. Her hair was getting redder from her the blood._

Her breathing calmed down as she relaxed. Zero blinked and felt her pulsed fall into dangerous territory. He panicked and began to shake her awake. She opened her eyes with a sharp gasp.

Zero gently put his forehead on her stomach and sighed with relief as her pulse returned.

"Z?" She whispered into the air. Zero picked her up and carried her to a the furthest corner in the room, holding her close to him.

"your heart almost stopped." He mumbled into her shoulder. She sighed and leaned back into him.

"Well you don't seem surprised that you almost died." Bass sneered into her ear, causing her to flinch suddenly. Zero was trying to focus on her, ignoring Iris.

"Hey, focus on me. Ignore everything else" Zero said, using a calm voice. She looked at him and her eyes were glazed over and unfocused.

"It hurts, Z. I can't even sleep to get away from it." She mumbled as she pulled him closer to her. She played with his hair just trying to turn around.

"...When I worked with Isoc, I used to run. I didn't want to be a maverick, or a killer." She mumbled, and Zero kissed her forehead, knowing that she was just blabbering. "Bass found me running one winter, and took me to a safe house. Kept me safe, for a couple weeks, anyway. Then Isoc tracked me down and…." She broke down, choking on the grief and pain. Zero kissed her cheek and cradled her head, just letting her vent and hummed.

"I figured." Zero said quietly into her ear. "He's cruel and angry when people leave. Of course he would do something like that"

X sighed as the timer counted down closer to Zero. They could make it, they would make it. All he had to do was wait, and that bit would be easy, because his eyes were drooping closed...


	4. Chapter 4

Something was beginning to change. Iris was starting to fritz out, the smell of circuits burning staining his nose. She was walking in zigzags before collapsing on her back. Zero, watching this happen, crawled next to her coughing form. He knew that this was the ending of the hallucinations, and he knew that Iris wouldnt just disappear. He knew that this virus would dig in hard and try to prolong its stay there.

"Why couldn't you just leave us to ourselves?" Iris growled out, her voice wavering. Zero gripped his head, trying to ignore her voice, and tried to ignore her and searched out a comfort familiar to him, but when he looked around he was alone with iris. A small gem appeared in from of him. Zero touched it and a shock ran through his entire body. Zero groaned and clamped his eyes closed.

Reaper was not doing as well as Zero. Her skin had long lost all its lively color, her breathing was erratic and her hair lost its glow becoming stringy and was turning white. She had her eyes open, but wasn't looking at anything. She made small sobbing sounds, choking on air. Bass was stumbling, holding his stomach, which was leaking oil.

"I'm solar powered, so this oil," He took the hand and shook it, spraying it all over the floor, "is keeping my Joints working, so while reploids, or robot masters, whichever the fuck I am, don't have blood, we can bleed out." He let out a barking laugh. Then his leg locked up in a straight line and the arm cradling his stomach snapped back straight so fast and that it broke and fell off, the arm dissolving into nothing. In her mind, she screamed, in reality, she let out a pitiful whimper.

Bass began screaming in pain, half laughing. He looked right at her, his bright red, animalistic eyes, bore into her fading green. Tears pooled down her face and she groaned.

Zero was surrounded with suffocating darkness the only light he had was emitted by that clear purple box, all that was left of Colonel. Iris's last precious artifact and the cause of her death.

"I tried to stop it, I really did. I'll have to live with the fact that you died, and was wrongfully accused of being maverick. I have to live with the fact that despite you begging me not to kill your brother, I did." Zero felt tears falling down his face, his voice cracking and his whole body trembling.

Iris made a unique expression. Confusion, surprise, and anger were visible on her face. She cursed her lips and went to open her mouth, but no sound came out, so she closed her mouth and cocked her head to the side. A white light engulfed her, the visual effect of the sparks of her circuits melting making contact with the oil in her systems. When everything cleared, he looked around and blanched.

"Veronica!" Zero gasped and ran to her and cradled her. She was alive, that was good news, but she was unresponsive, which was horrible. She almost looked dead, her skin pale and her eyes were dull. Zero wiped tears off of her cheeks and counted the breaths until she woke up.

Reaper felt a numbness rush over her, against her face and rubbing against her cheek. Bass's maniacal laughter seemed less overwhelming and the numbness was warm and inviting. She went to float back into it but was yanked back.

With all of his internal systems fully functional, Zero could see that her vital signs were getting stronger, but she just kept jerking in his arms.

Reaper herself was screaming at bass in her mind.

"Stop, you went against him knowing he would lose. _**You left me with him."**_ She sobbed against Zero's chest in reality, Zero trying to soothe her.

Bass raised an eyebrow, his vocal box having blown out. He gave her a small smirk and finally started to seize up and combusted.

Reaper gasped awake in Zero's arms. Zero helped her to her feet and walked to the exit of the room. Relief extremely apparent on their face and in their body language. X greeted them with a sleepy smile. They smiled back at him and agreed to a quick check up in the med bay.

After the visit to the med bay, they calmly went back to the little apartment they called home. They got cleaned up and got changed, but weren't quite ready to go to bed. Instead Reaper opened a window and grabbed to boxes that Zero recognized, one box of cigarettes for him and one for her. Zero smiled and followed her up the fire escape.


End file.
